As a player of Sins of a Solar Empire since it first came out, I have a few things to say about that.

1. Well, you're right. Sins doesn't do land combat and can't do it since there's no engine support.

2. The base game is pretty simple, but you can do a ton of stuff with passive abilities and buff chains. Using an ability/buff chain, Sins can give you ion cannons that disable weapons, which is something that EaW/FoC cannot do. The ability to link buffs to weapons is a pretty useful tool. Sins's ability and buff system is actually incredibly robust, including the creation of actual logic gates. If there's something you need doing, chances are an ability/buff chain can do it. In addition, ships have five ability slots compared to the two of FoC. Plus, weapons such as missiles and mass drivers can be given automatic shield penetration via a tag in the ship's weapon listing. The hardcoded fire arcs are a problem, sure, but most ships in Star Wars have restrictive fire arcs for most of their weapons anyways, and any fixed weaponry can be put in as an ability that fires only when facing the target. Rebellion also added support for another two weapon slots for ships, so ships can have five weapons compared to the three previously, so you can mix and match turbolaser types better now. As to the hardpoints, well Sins doesn't have hardpoints, but one can standardize damage ratings for weapons, say ships have x of a certain weapon in a certain arc, then set that arc's damage for that weapon to match what it would be in PR. Ships can even be given individual upgrades using research-boosted passive abilities that enhance ship stats. Plus a huge positive is structures can be built where you want them with as many as the planet can hold.

3. Maps are how you make them. Yes, the basic Sins maps are randomized, but a custom map can be set up to have planets where you want them, named how you want them, with the militia you want, and the planet type you want, assuming you added all those planet types and militia templates in.

4. Heroes are possible. Check out the latest release of the Enhanced 4X Mod.

The problems with Sins are that 1) it does not have land combat 2) it has very simplistic space combat, in general 3) its maps are randomised, so we cannot make historical campaigns 4) there are no heroes.

Ooooh! I hope the news is a release date! I am more exited for this mod that I've ever been for a full game!

Oh, I think you might like what we have yet to say, .... (smug grin)

You sure know how to build the hype to almost unbearable levels! The prospect of new maps has me drooling, well, more than usual. I have a feeling that minds are gonna blow, oh wait, mine already has... where's my mop...